Power of 3 returns

A few years ago I had some success with coming up with three goals to keep me focused, but when I tried that theme for a new year's resolution in 2015, I completely failed.

The main reason it failed was because I thought it would easily become routine and something I could manage without any issues month to month.

Turns out, you have to work to be successful, even with easy things. Who knew, right? (Where's that sarcasm font...)

Leading up to 2017, running has gradually gotten back on track because I've talked about it more and put more effort into holding myself accountable. It's still way off what I used to do, but it's much better than just a few months ago.

In the past few weeks I've been thinking a lot about how to make this year better than the last, and perhaps better than any in the past few years, both with running and home life.

I kept coming back to my failed "Power of 3" year and tried to figure out a plan that will work.

(Three is a magic number, you know.)

Here's what I've done so far to set myself up for a successful run: At home, my wife uses a very visible calendar that also has a notes area where we all see it and can talk about it.

On the last couple of days of every month, I've written a reminder to develop three new goals for the following month.

In my running log, I've put a reminder on the final day of every month to write down the next month's goals.

And if that's not enough, I've set up an alert on my phone for 8 p.m. the last day of every month to develop the next month's goals.

(That's three reminders if you're keeping track)

My plans are to write more and to post more about my goals and their results. If I fail, I want to figure out why. If I succeed, I want to challenge myself to do something even tougher.

I'll get into more specifics in my next post on what my January goals are for both running and for my family.